Rating of
2.5/4
Say Hello To A Decent Gangster Flick
GeminiSixty6 - wrote on 05/06/08
I had really high hopes for this film when I sat down to watch it. It has two of my favorite actors (Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe), and one of my all time favorite directors (Ridley Scott). Now don't get me wrong I enjoyed the film, but I was expecting something really solid. I felt like the film couldn't make up it's mind on where it wanted to go. Now it's based off of a true story, which is all fine and dandy, but it just felt like a lost film in some parts.
I felt like the entire way through the film they were preaching police corruption, and that Detective Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) was more concerned about bringing about an end to that than stopping the drug problem. I guess that rubbed me the wrong way or something. Then towards the end of the film they start showing scenes of people killed by Blue Magic, the struggle with addiction, and various other affects of the drugs. When Roberts goes to build his case against Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) he seems to use more of that....but the film hardly touched on it in my opinion. At the trial Roberts focuses more on that than the police corruption the film centered apon. But, hey I guess whatever you gotta do to win the case, right? I just wished the film could have given equal attention to the corruption and the effects. 50 / 50 instead of 90 / 10.
One side character I enjoyed a lot was Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.). He wasn't in the film a lot, but the parts he was in I thought were really well written, and Cuba brought a lot of passion to that role. Denzel and Russell were both good, not as great as they have been in past features, but they were well cast for the parts.
So, it's a good gangster flick. Not my favorite by far, but not bad by any means. It's entertainment, and really worth a look at just by the stars in it.
